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“This is the most ridiculous idea you’ve ever had.”
“Does that mean you’re the ridiculous one since you gave me that idea?”
“Ugh.”
Crow scoffed, caught the sight of a satisfied look on Joker’s face, before she proceeded into Mementos. The sight of this place continued to bring a shiver down his spine and he followed her down the steps. He watched how her black locks shook with each of her movement, her coat flapping with each step and heard her hum.
Inside this dark and hollow place, it felt so out of place that he wished to laugh.
“Stop complaining.” The trickster showed him her face, the upper half of her face hidden by her white mask. “You owe me from last time we did this. I obliged you and now it is your turn to oblige me.”
Of course. It was so much like Joker to get back to the things they had done and use it for her favor. They had so much better to do – and yet, they wasted this afternoon in Mementos instead of going into Maruki’s palace and taking care of the bastard that bound him once more to this reality.
But Crow shut his mouth. He knew when the talking should be done. And so, he followed her. Into the parts of Memenots that let his skin crawl and forced a light sheen of sweat on his forehead, under his helmet. He looked around, remembered the many times he was in this place.
“Don’t kill me, please-”
“I do everything you want-”
“You murderer-”
“Please, I beg of you-”
“Name me any price-”
“Just let me live-”
“You monster-”
“Monster-”
“Stop it-”
“It hurts-”
“Spare me, please-”
“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-”
“Cr-cro-cro-cr-Crow?”
The moment was shattered, a mirror in his eyes, glass shards falling on the ground between them. Joker tilted her head, her locks following her and falling like a curtain down her back. “It’s not far from here, we’ll be there in a minute.”
His desire to tear everything apart, preferably starting with the girl right in front of him, was immense. Ever since he woke up in this dream like world, the urge to rip everything to shreds became strong. Stronger than his need to eat, sleep or keep on going. The deep anger that was manifested in his heart ever since he found out about his demon’s name was stronger than ever before. It clawed at him, tore at his limbs and found a way to his heart.
He bit his lip. But he continued to follow her. Continued to follow this girl who was both his friend and enemy. A mix of two components so unfittng, but there was nothing else he could say about her.
Well, that was a joke. And didn’t he always have such a great sense of humor?
In fact, there were several things to say about her – from the way she seemed to be his exact opposite, the way she had everything he always wanted without doing something extraordinary. How she seemed to have won this little bet between two beings that were out of their reach.
He lost. He lost against this girl, not only once, after she tricked him, not twice, when she defeated him in Shido’s palace, but THREE TIMES when she seemed to have won the bet. They were both pawns in a game unknown to the human imagination, and he lost.
He gritted his teeth. Black Mask looked at the girl with the luscious locks, how she turned her head over her shoulder to look at him once more. A question in her gaze, but it disappeared the second he wished to see more. To find out more about the girl that was his opponent, his direct opposite. The girl he had once claimed to have hated, whose wish was strong enough to bring him back. She was the reason why he had returned to his rotten and shitty world. He had given his life back then, out of his own will, without anyone to tell him what to do. And what happened?
She ruined it. Like his goal, his end.
A door opened and she checked him one more time by looking over her shoulder. Joker has once again this determined gleam in her eyes. “We’re here.”
It wasn’t much more that she said.
She seemed to have learned. Without any hesitation or thought of fearing what could happen, she climbed through a hole in the middle of Mementos. He followed suite.
And found himself in a small space. It wasn’t much bigger than the one where he had brought her when he asked her to fight him.
“So, we’re here.” He stepped closer, his heels clacking through space. “What exactly is the reason you’re wasting our time here?”
She stayed still. Unmoving.
“Joker-”
“There is a favor I’d like to ask of you.” She turned around, spun on her heels, her cloak flying behind her. Once again, silence came up between them and he could feel how the drops were filling the barrel. She was testing his fucking patience and he was done with this-
“Stop making me wait and tell me already-”
“I want to take off your mask.”
Fire and ice. Bright and dark. Joker’s eyes always sang a melody, obnoxious and too loud to ignore in a language even children can understand. It was easy to decipher, often wearing her heart on her sleeve especially around the other thieves. She knew when to laugh, how to speak with her friends, to fulfill her role as leader. She never hesitated to be her real self, the one without a mask on her face all day long. Even when she was Joker, wearing one of them, white with black accents, on her nose, it was a part of her. It didn’t seem like she was wearing it to hide herself.
But to make herself whole.
He sneered. “What is the meaning of this?” He chuckled. “Wishing to start a philosophical discussion with me?”
“Not philosophical.”
Sometimes, the melody in her eyes was written in a language he could never think of mastering. The way her gray eyes seemed to speak, to sing, to whisper softly and murmur sweet words, were obscured by her mask.
“But psychological.” She took only one step at a time. She wished to bridge the distance between them. Every step was too much and too less. Two opposites mixing into a picture that was oh so fitting for a person like her. “There is something I’ve wished to ask you, Crow.”
“Another one-”
“Goro Akechi.” His name boomed through Mementos and his breath was cut short. The way she spoke let everything mingle together. “Who are you?”
“What-”
He halted.
“Why are you asking me this? You know who I am, don’t you?”
“I don’t.” One step forward. He stayed still. “Tell me.”
“I-”
How was he supposed to answer this question?
Yes, him. He was him. Nothing else. No other person. There was no mysterious doppelganger outside of this reality to bear his name and face, no one who knew the people like he did, no impostor who was able to take what’s his.
Easy as that.
But he wouldn’t be himself if he could just say it like that. He was given the gift of a mind that works long and hard, to make out the string his thoughts followed.
“I thought as much,” she whispered between the silence that lay between them, her words flying out of her lips and floating in the air like a fragile butterfly. And yet, he heard them like she was standing right next to him, screaming into his ear. “There is something I’ve thought about, Crow.” She took a step forward. The distance between them got smaller. “Whenever I look at you, who is it that I am speaking with? Is it the first Crow? Is it the second one?”
Robin Hood and Loki. A hero and a traitor. An outcast and an ally. Strong for others and strong for himself. A thorn in the eyes of higher beings, be it a king or a god.
They were only an arm’s length apart from each other. He could see the shape of her lips, the elegant slope of her nose, her high cheekbones. The way her black hair swayed with every movement. Her scent slowly tried to seduce its nose, making him take a breath.
But he refused. Wished to refuse and keep his guard up.
“When you were using Robin Hood, all you did was all smiles and laughs. Being polite and considerate of others, trying to fight for your own justice.” She crossed her arms, looked at him from under her mask. “When you are using Loki, you snarl, you are aggressive, you don’t give any kind of bullshit for anything that happens. You don’t hesitate to kill.” The last word was spoken with something that piqued his interest – both disgust and some kind of… pity?
He wished to strangle her right in this moment.
“What’s your point?” He snarled and watched with even more growing irritation how her shoulders lowered and a look of defeat was plastered on her face. “I do not intent to waste my time down here while you try to keep soliloquies. Instead of standing here, we could have just gone to Maruki’s palace and finish this finally.”
“Even if you intent to bring this to an end, there are things I want to conclude.” She took a step forward, narrowing the distance. Her scent got stronger, a snake finally baring its fangs. But Goro Akechi was stronger than this.
“Ever since we’ve fought at Shido’s palace, there is something I’ve been wondering about.” She tightened the grip on her hands. “Why did you do it?”
She took a step forward. Adding their proximity, she didn't seem to mind when only a couple of inches were separating them.
“What are you talking about-”
“Why did you save us?”
Tilting her head, she challenged him. Openly. Without even one ounce of shame.
Gritting his teeth, Crow stayed still on his spot. He didn't open his mouth. He didn't move his tongue. He let silence speak.
Until there a single sentence that came up in his mind and when he spoke it, he straightened his back and squared his shoulders.
“It was my decision.”
It seemed like the final cue for her. Joker walked forward, their chests touching and her voice broke down to a whisper.
“Can I take off your mask?”
The air turned thin. A shiver ran down his spine.
He didn't speak.
Two gloved hands touched the side of his helmet and with slow consideration, she lifted the piece. Oxygen touched the back of his neck and his hair fell down his shoulders.
Goro only watched the fascination in her eyes. Her pupils widened, her mouth opening up a sliver, her nostrils flaring. All of them were absolute obvious signs for a reaction he didn't want to elaborate any further in that moment.
But looking at her, Goro took action. Action and reaction.
His thenar touching her cheekbones, he reached for the sides of her mask. And slowly, painfully, the moment stretching into an eternity, he pulled of her mask. A couple of strands followed his movement and he looked into her silver eyes. Her pupils becoming smaller, but growing fuller when a second passes.
They look at each other.
Without masks, without the Phantom Thieves, they are simply each other.
Akira Kurusu. Goro Akechi.
Holding each other's masks in their hands, Goro leaned down.
She leaned upwards, standing on her tiptoes.
In the darkness of mementos, in the reality of this moment, Goro and Akira only existed for each other.